Indeed. But it's not scary. We have had machines that were far stronger than humans, for more than a century. We have machines that are better at reading than humans. We aren't intimidated by these machines, we simply use them and benefit from them. We need not be intimidated by AI either. In the end, it's another powerful tool that we can use.

The problem with the quest for "general" AI is that it's not a thing. It's an imaginary concept. Even human intelligence isn't "general"--it is instead a collection of many specialized intelligences, that each focus on one task, such as visual processing, sensory perception, language, art, emotions, creativity, and so on. These many intelligence centers cooperate, but there is no one "general" intelligence. In the AI realm, we already see multiple AIs being coordinated, such as math and language, or language and image generation. THIS is what "general" AI looks like, and the definition is in the eye of the beholder.

The idea that human intelligence is "general" is also flawed. Human intelligence is a collection of many specialized intelligences. Our brains have many specialized processing centers devoted to things such as language, vision, memory retention, sensory processing, and so on. It's not just one "big" "general" intelligence.

Why should we assume that these AI "interviews" were real? I have no doubt there are plenty of pranksters on the internet, pretending to interview people for jobs. Deep fakes are a thing, why wouldn't there be deep fake interviews too?

People keep talking as if "general" AI is some specific new technology that can be developed. If you look at human intelligence, our brains have many high-specialized processors. There are parts of the brain devoted to visual processing, audio processing, language, artistic expression, math, and so on. We are able to do what we do because we have so many separate systems that collaborate to form human intelligence. There isn't going to be a "general" AI, but lots of types of AI working together with more and more capabilities. There's no magic bullet, we'll have to solve each type of intelligence problem individually.

AI just proved that the Turing Tests we have today, aren't very good at actually distinguishing a human from a machine. The tests were only good at telling humans from computers of that generation. Time for a new test.

I agree with this completely.

These technologies you declare dead, aren't quite dead yet.

Data analytics tools like PowerBI or Tableau, and NoSQL, were supposed to make SQL databases obsolete. Guess what, SQL is still growing, not shrinking.

Windows is on more desktops then ever, and Google is evolving, but it's not going anywhere.

Stack Overflow is not in the same league as these other tools. It held a prominent place among developers, but its scope and capabilities were always quite limited. I always found it frustrating to use Stack Overflow because there were so many false leads. But there was nothing better. Now there is, and I have happily switched to GitHub Copilot. It saves me a *ton* of time compared to Stack Overflow.

Not so much the other tools. I'll be driving my Toyota for a long time.

Actually, AI *does* help here, it's great at translating code from one language to another.

That's not my experience. Almost 100% of the time, if the code generated by AI is more than trivial, I have to fix it before it will compile. It usually gets close, but it does *not* take the entire context into account.

Again, AI is actually pretty good at explaining why code works, or doesn't work.

Have you actually used an AI programming assistant?

It sounds like your local Walmart is kind of crappy, for sure. In Houston where I live, there are 8 Super Walmarts within 5 miles, and all are well-maintained, well-staffed, lines are short, even in the returns department. I almost never have to wait to check out or return something. And they even offer free bags to help you carry your stuff to the car.

I also don't do delivery. That's just asking for trouble. I have yet to see a brick-and-mortar store that did a great job with delivery. They almost always get the order wrong, or make inappropriate substitutions. I walk in, every time. That way I know what I'm getting.

I won't go to Target _because of_ their LGBT initiatives. I have nothing against people who choose "alternative" sex partners. But when I go into a Target, I don't want to see whole sections of the store devoted to any kind of sexual behavior--gay or straight or otherwise. Go to Victoria's Secret or similar stores, if you want kinky stuff. Keep sex in the bedroom please, it doesn't belong in public.

My issue is with your characterization that Walmart products are "poorly made garbage." This has not been my experience, at least not since the 1970s. Their products are largely decent quality, they just tend not to be high-brow brands. THAT is where you save money at Walmart--by skipping the shopping mall brands and prices.

Point taken. Still, for tasks that are more developer-focused, I tend to want to use task-specific tools. Usually, an all-in-one tool does certain things well, but if you go off the beaten path, it becomes more work than just using the normal tool. Consider git. This tool can do some things with git, and maybe it's fine for git pull or git commit, but if you need anything more interactive such as resolving merge conflicts, it might actually make things more difficult.

Sweet, glad it works for you! I approach search with the opposite perspective, I just want to search and let the system figure out what I want. I don't *want* to have to specify what kind of thing I'm searching for.

You're right, this thing does some things the Start button can't do. I don't know why I would want to use this to switch windows, Alt+Tab and Win+Tab seem very capable of performing this task.

As for git, I don't want to use a jack-of-all-trades interface to use Git, I prefer to use a dedicated Git tool like TortiseGit or Visual Studio's Git support. It's kind of like going to a Denny's and ordering a T-bone steak. It's best to stick with the foods the restaurant is actually good at; in the case of Denny's, that would be pancakes and other breakfast items. The point is, a tool that can do all kinds of stuff, isn't usually the best tool when your focus is on a specific area that requires power tools.

Some people like to write their own plugins, and that's great. For those who do, this tool is probably awesome. Personally, I don't want to have to make my own tools. My development focus is on genetics and genealogy, so having to make my own tools is a distraction. I have only so many dev hours to spend.

You're right about laptops. They are hard to upgrade, and this is a big problem for me as a developer.